Re: Programming for 14 year old (was Programming for 13 year old)

From: Calum (calum.bulk_at_ntlworld.com)
Date: 02/27/04 

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 18:08:41 +0000

Grod wrote:

> About a year ago I posted a question about how to go about teaching
> programming to my 13 year old nephew. Well, we have been at it off
> and on for about a year averaging sessions of maybe twice a month
> and now he is 14 years old.
>
> We started with HTML which worked out well in that it got him
> creating code fast. We used the Werbach barebones guide to
> HTML ( http://werbach.com/barebones/download.html ) as a reference.
>
> Then we progressed to Javascript which was good in that it was
> an easy transition although its going a bit slowly. I found some
> reference material on the net but ultimately got the Visibone
> javascript reference card ( http://www.visibone.com ) as well as
> their HTML reference card as these are inexpensive and compactly
> provide the language definitions -- I don't think he would have
> the patience for a book.
>
> We then proceeded to try out R ( http://www.r-project.org ) so he
> could try out scientific programming. R is interactive -- type in
> a command and immediately get the answer back -- but it did not
> seem to hold his interest and I returned to Javascript with him.
>
> We will probably continue to spend some more time on Javascript
> until he gains more proficiency though I have been thinking of
> trying out gamemaker too -- its a programmable game making environment
> ( http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker/ ) as he is about to
> get a PC so we soon won't be restricted to Mac environments.
>
> I think what I need now are some good motivating problems to work on.
> Anyone have any ideas for problems?

Lego Mindstorms! It uses a cute visual programming language, and it is
really fun (apparently ;-) You could make the programs really
sophisticated, and make useful devices with complicated logic. It would
make a great birthday present.

Calum

> ---
>
> A year ago I wrote on this group:
>
> I want to teach programming to my 13 year old nephew who has a Mac G3
> OS9.1 .
>
> My original plan was to start with HTML (we created our first web page
> last week), move to Javascript since its a simple transition to just
> start adding some Javascript commands into HTML.
>
> I was then going to move to Java. Java looks like Javascript and
> provides a good upward migration path. Someone on the java newsgroup
> had the idea of teaching Java applets first which would make the
> transition particularly easy. There is also a free IDE called BlueJ
> targeted at education. Unfortunately it seems that the latest Java is
> not supported on OS9.1 nor is BlueJ. Thus I am back to reconsidering
> how we progress.
>
> I did some searching on the net and found that Java, Smalltalk/Squeak
> and Scheme/Lisp were often used to teach programming in first year
> programming courses.
>
> Ideally, I was hoping to teach something that:
> - is mainstream
> - runs on a Mac G3 with OS9.1
> - does not involve $$$
> - is cross platform so he can move to Windows or Unix/Linux if he gets
> a different computer in the future
> - provides a high motivation level, i.e. you can get some results
> fast. This point is really important. The entire exercise requires
> maintaining his interest level.
> - forms a logical upward migration path from HTML and Javascript
>
> Here are some of my thoughts -- hopefully this will not start a debate
> on programming languages -- I am just trying to figure out what should
> be my game plan here.
>
> - Realbasic. Pro: rapid development, close enough to VB to be
> considered mainstream. Con: new syntax, costs money. (Someone on Mac
> group mentioned this one to me.)
>
> - Lua, Python, Ruby, Squeak/Smalltalk. Pro: rapid development? free.
> Con: new syntax, arguably not mainstream. (Someone on the Java group
> mentioned to me that there is some introductory programming material
> for Python.)
>
> - Perl. Great libraries but I find it a bit complex for this purpose.
>
> - R (www.r-project.com). This is a scientific/statistics workbench.
> If we went this way the focus would not be so much on programming, per
> se, as math and science (which happen to be his two best subjects).
> Pro: free, rapid development of scientific/statistical calculations,
> syntax close to Javascript, mainstream (if you consider S-Plus as
> mainstream since its nearly identical to that). Con: no gui (other
> than tk interface); however, you can create a wide variety of
> beautiful scientific plots.
>
> - XML/XSLT. This is not really an alternative but would be an extra
> step before getting to Javascript. XSLT gets part way to a
> programming language and requires the concept of trees. Syntax is
> similar to HTML. If we do this before Javascript it gives me a little
> more time to figure out what we do after Javascript.
>
> Thanks for any comments. 

-- 
Persistent data in C++: http://visula.org/persist

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